The present invention relates to the external configuration of a dental implant element and, more particularly, to a specific beneficial screw-like geometry for use with such an implant.
The prior art of dental implants has generally related to the use of forty pitch threading (0.025 inches between threads) having an essentially symmetric bevel as between the upper and lower faces on either side of the major thread diameters of the threading of such implant elements. In such symmetry, the standard total included angle at the so-called bevel surface at the outer geometry of the major thread diameter has, historically, comprised an angle of about sixty degrees. Therein the distance between threads was generally equal to the thread depths. See FIGS. 1A and 1B.
The within inventor has discovered that a screw-like implant surface of the above type is not optimal from an anatomical perspective. More particularly, the inventor has, as a result of extended experimentation in the subject area, determined that the so-called spongy layer of bone, of which the upper and lower human mandible is formed, does not optimally engage threaded implant surfaces having a forty pitch and greater thread characteristic. The inventor has also discovered that the prior art symmetric bevel is not nearly as effective as would be an asymmetric upper-to-lower face configuration, as is more particularly set forth below.
As a consequence of the above limitations in the prior art, dental implants in the human mandible are prone to movement and loosening over time, particularly as the cumulative effect of the thousands of micro-forces, torques, stresses and strains at the bone implant interface occur. It is in response to these well known shortcomings in the prior art that the instant invention is directed.